Sanzioni disciplinari a carico di avvocati e confini mobili della 'materia penale': spunti critico-ricostruttivi della giurisprudenza convenzionale e delle relative ricadute sull'ordinamento interno

This essay analyzes the European Court of Human Rights' case law concerning procedural and substantial guarantees related to the imposition of disciplinary sanctions on lawyers. I show that the connection of those sanctions to the autonomous notion of “criminal matter” is deeply controversial and that it requires careful assessments to differentiate between sanctions applied, on one side, by disciplinary boards and, on the other side, by judges for contempt-of-court-violations. The paper focuses on the implementation of the well-known Engel criteria in these two different situations and examines the consequential statements made by the Grand Chamber in the recent judgment delivered in the Gestur Jónsson and Ragnar Halldór Hall v. Iceland case. I argue that the criminal guarantees’ applicability must be evaluated accurately by the authorities interpreting and applying national rules, which provide sanctions against lawyers, in the light of the relevant precedent judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.